Venturi Goes Kinky

A new Fetish is about to hit the streets. But don't think whips and latex; think cars.

Venturi plans to deliver the first of its highly anticipated electric sports cars - named the Fetish - this month, according to CEO Gildo Pallanca Pastor.

The startup opened a new production plant specifically for the €450,000 Fetish in Monaco, where Venturi's offices are also located, he said. But production will be extremely low - only five cars per year. So don't count on getting your hands on one of these coveted cars any time soon.

"We're not claiming to be a big industrial [producer]; we're a small company growing," said Pastor, a former race-car driver. "Fetish is really a handmade car and it's slow because it's the best quality you can find, it's very expensive and it's using technologies that are the top you can find, specifically made for this car."

The Fetish will be the second electric sports car to enter production, following the Tesla Roadster, which launched last year and also immediately sold out.

But the Fetish, which goes zero to 60 in just under five seconds, actually debuted before the Roadster, at the 2004 Paris Motor Show, where it grabbed headlines as the first electric sports car intended for production.

After a history of slower, smaller electric cars, the Fetish was a fast phenomenon.

At the debut, Pastor remembered, Venturi didn't know if anyone would want to buy the Fetish. "It was a mystery," he said.

A mystery that's long over. Not only has Venturi received more than a million e-mails about the Fetish, it also already has sold the first 25 cars - that's five years' worth.

The problem has been choosing who gets the cars, Pastor said.

"It's a limited edition, and we're concerned to see which part of the world to send the cars and how we can service the people as best we can," he said. "We want to put them in the hands of the right people."

"We're taking kind of the opposite approach from Tesla [Motors]," he said. "Our idea is it's not the best for the world to have a lot of cars like this one, but to focus on smaller cars for big production. The best thing to do today with electric cars is to use them to commute every day."

Pastor hopes the success of the Fetish will trickle down into the company's next models, which he said would range from other speedy, sporty cars to "silly cars" and practical cars for city use.

Of course, electric cars have had only limited success so far. Analysts say they still are too expensive for the mass market, can't drive far enough on a single charge and take hours to recharge.

"Most people are looking at electric cars as an alternative to a second car they have in the household; not necessarily as an only vehicle," said Thilo Koslowski, lead automotive analyst for Gartner. To change that, he said, electric cars need to focus on performance and range and make sure they can compete with the utility and space of other vehicles.

Proponents say most commutes are less than 40 miles, which some electric cars already can exceed in one charge.

Pastor said the key to success is winning over the minds of consumers, and the mentality is changing.

"We have requests for our cars because the economical model the car manufacturers have been using for decades is dead," he said. "It's the end of an era today, with fewer and fewer car manufacturers running for more and more volume and, in the end, not making any money."

Pastor, who originally made his money in real estate and who said he has put about €15 million into Venturi so far, said he expects this company will make him "rich a second time," with this company, and within five years.